Matthew Moradi

Name: Matthew "Matt" Moradi

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Grade: 12th

School: Cochise High School

Hobbies and Interests: Video games, literature, violin, tabletop games.

Appearance: Matt is short with a lean, skinny build, standing at 5'6" and weighing 137 pounds. Due to his primarily Persian ancestry, Matthew has an olive complexion and black, straight hair, which he keeps short. Matthew doesn't shave, having been able to grow a full beard since he was 14. However, he does keep his beard trimmed and well groomed. He keeps it fairly short.

Matt has thick, bushy eyebrows. His eyes are brown, the almond shape typical for someone of Persian ancestry. His nose is sharp, narrow and angular, a stark contrast to other parts of his face. His chin is short and poorly defined, which is the main reason he doesn't shave. Matt has large ears and small, thin lips.

In terms of fashion, Matthew tries to dress in a way that makes sense, considering the weather; he usually wears a single colored t-shirt and jeans. Shoes are usually the most expensive part of the outfit, often costing well over a hundred dollars, usually Roshe Runs. During the winter Matt usually wears a coat and Timberlands, if it snows. On the day of the abduction, Matt was wearing jeans, a white t-shirt, sneakers and a red flannel shirt.

Biography: Matthew Abdullah Moradi was born to Ahmad Moradi and Hester Moradi (nee Tehrani) on September 8th, 1996 in the city of Kingman, Arizona. Both of Matthew's parents were doctors, both having been born and raised in Arizona. Ahmad is a Kingman native, whereas Hester is from Phoenix. Hester and Ahmad agreed to give their son a Western name, Ahmad citing problems he had fitting in at school due to his name.

Both of Matt's parents had decently high paying jobs: his mother worked as a physician and his father worked as a dentist. Due to the high paying nature of both their jobs, Matthew's family is relatively wealthy, living in a large house in a nice neighborhood.

Matthew's mother, Hester, had been raised as a nondenominational Muslim but had stopped practicing by adulthood. Ahmad had been raised as a Shia Muslim. Although Ahmad was not a very devout Muslim, he believed that being raised religious was the key to being a moral person. Hester wanted to raise Matthew without any religion, preferring to let him choose later on in life. Ahmad was reluctant to raise Matthew without any religion, but eventually gave in.

Upon entering school, Matthew was pushed to excel by his father; he was rewarded for getting good grades and scolded for anything less. Ahmad pushed Matthew to do well in school because he believed that instilling a good work ethic was important. Hester agreed with Ahmad, but believed that he could be too forceful at times, as he sometimes hit Matt lightly and yelled at him for doing poorly. Due to this, Hester occasionally argued with him. As Matt got older, he came to resent his father for being overly strict. Matthew learned from his father early on in life that if you want to succeed, you have to work hard. This is where he gets his dedicated nature from. Combined with his natural intelligence, Matt didn't find it too hard to get good grades in school.

Matt learned to read at an early age, starting to read at age four, kick starting his love of reading and literature in general. Matt was reading at a 9th grade level in the 5th grade. Matt also began using computers at a fairly early age, starting when he was six. Around this same age, Matt began playing video games, though not to the extent he would later on. Early on in life, Matt read anything he could get his hands on, fiction or non-fiction. Today, he mostly reads genre fiction such as fantasy and science-fiction. He likes these genres mainly due to the escapism aspect, reading them allowing him to forget how boring his life is.

Matt did well academically and socially early on in school, finding it easy to get good grades if he tried hard enough and focused on school. Matt was agreeable and friendly as a child, finding it easy to make friends with his peers. It was around this time - at the age of 8 - that Matthew's mother started pushing him to start playing violin, hoping he would have some sort of talent for it. He began to take lessons from a tutor and, despite lacking any talent for the violin at all, Matt enjoyed it. Over time, he became better, though his current level of skill could be considered just barely competent. Matt rarely plays in front of anyone else, feeling embarrassed at how unskilled he is for the amount of time he's been learning. Matt prefers to play mostly classical violin music and has yet to attempt to compose any himself.

Matt started middle school around the same time that he started going through puberty. Matt's voice started changing, his skin became greasier and was soon covered in acne. Suddenly becoming extremely self-conscious about his appearance, Matt lost most of the confidence he had before. Because of this sudden lack of confidence, Matt opened himself to being bullied. Also due to this loss of confidence he rarely, if ever, spoke out against his bullies. Matt simply took it instead of telling anyone, believing that trying to deal with it by himself was the best option. His parents and teachers had noticed Matt's sudden change in personality and tried to put a stop to the bullying - Ahmad gave Matt exceedingly poor advice, suggesting that he try and fight back physically. Weak, Matt lost - still, irregardless of the outcome, this merely got Matt in trouble and made teachers doubt that he was really a victim. His teachers usually gave out ineffectual punishments, occasionally to Matt as well. By the end of middle school, it had mostly stopped, but Matt had changed as a person. Matt himself didn't consider what he went through bullying, mainly because it wasn't the stereotypical kind. Instead of, say, being shoved into a locker, Matt was picked on a lot for his height, appearance and ethnicity. Because of what he went through, Matt withdrew socially, having few friends and rarely speaking. Due to the bullying and social isolation, Matt developed an extremely abrasive, rude and sarcastic personality in order to avoid getting emotionally hurt. If he spoke, it was almost never anything nice. When dealing with new people, he was cautious, not really opening up all that much to them.

As a result, middle school was a struggle, at least socially. Academically, Matt did poorly, at least by his standards. His grades had dropped from an A average to a B due to his lack of focus thanks to the bullying, something that frustrated him. Around this time, Matt began using the internet more and more for recreational purposes; he had mostly used it for the news before that. He began browsing websites like Tumblr and Reddit, eventually creating a Tumblr blog and a Reddit account. It was also around this time that Matt's political views began forming. He began questioning religion, especially Islam - for a large part of his early life Matt had chosen to follow his father's religion, albeit half-heartedly. His father felt incredibly disappointed and even betrayed at Matt's sudden change of views, especially due to how militant Matt was about them. His mother was saddened at how this change caused her husband some level of distress, but otherwise felt that Matt was free to make his own choices. He also became interested in social justice, though he only remains involved in the online aspect of the movement. Beginning to play more video games, Matt built his own computer to play more graphics intensive ones more efficiently, saving up allowances and sinking a thousand dollars into it, having saved the money up over several months and a year. His interest in computers barely went beyond this. In terms of taste, Matt plays all genres, but he prefers indie games due to what he perceives to be their originality and creativity.

Soon after he started attending Cochise, puberty began to end and Matt's acne began clearing up, something that had left him with a new found sense of confidence. Matt quickly began to realize that his personality wouldn't help him find any friends. He began trying to change his personality, toning down the abrasiveness and sarcasm the best he could. Though not as irritating as he once was, Matt is still much like the person he was in middle school: abrasive and sarcastic, just not to the same extent. Usually, he stays decently reserved and cautious when dealing with other people, at least until they give him a reason to start acting abrasive.

Shortly after starting high school, Matt became interested in tabletop games, mainly Dungeons & Dragons and its derivative games, like Pathfinder. The escapism aspect of tabletop gaming is what attracted Matt to it. Matt's determined nature lead to him playing more optimized characters, ones that tended to be as optimized as he could make them or as much as the GM would allow. This, combined with his abrasiveness, makes him a difficult person to play with at times; roleplaying takes the backseat to winning, an attitude that has gotten him kicked out of groups in the past. While aware that his style of playing could lead to strife, he feels as if not doing it would make his character - and thus, himself - less useful. Matt is currently in a group, though he often finds himself arguing with others, mostly about in-game things like loot and the usefulness of others.

Matt does well in school, at least academically. Due to his sheer dedication to studying and his natural intelligence, Matt is almost a straight A student, finding trouble with few subjects other than French, a subject he has little enthusiasm for. Compounded with the trouble he has with conjugations and simply learning a new language, Matt's grade in French is a B, something that disappoints him greatly. Other than that, he particularly excels in history, finding it the most interesting due to the way history seems to tell a story. Outside of school, Matt studies history - European history in particular, mostly due to the readily available resources and his own personal interest in it. Matt has little enthusiasm for most subjects other than history, not finding the majority of them hard, except for French.

Socially, Matt has few people that he himself would call his friends, not feeling very close to many of the people he knows. He gets along best with people like him who share his heavily sarcastic sense of humor. He feels this way mainly because he doesn't feel like he spends much time with them. Recently, he's been trying to change this. Over the years, Matt has made a few enemies - really just people who hold a mild dislike of him - due to his attitude. They come from all different backgrounds, mostly just being people Matt has gotten into arguments with or insulted. Matt is heterosexual and still a virgin, something that frustrates him.

Matt's relationship with his father started to become strained around the start of high school. They often come into conflict over varying topics, usually religion or politics. Ahmad is a Muslim and a right leaning Republican, whereas his mother is more of a moderate, professing agnosticism. Matt feels as though his father is intentionally trying to start arguments with him, but it's the opposite: Matt is usually the one to bring up politics and religion. His relationship with his mother is slightly better, although distant due to the hours she works.

Matt despises sports. Never having been particularly athletic as a child, Matt's lukewarm attitude towards sports and most kinds of physical activity has shifted to an open dislike of them. Matt often asserts that he doesn't like sports and has little understanding of them beyond the basic rules. Physically weak, Matt has made few attempts to fix this or become stronger. At this point in his life, Matt has mostly just come to accept that he's not very strong - his mother thinks quite little of Matt's poor physical strength, though she does push him slightly if only so he could do better in PE. Ahmad is a touch more concerned, often telling him that he should at least try to be more athletic - having mostly accepted that this is who he is combined with his general disrespect for his father, Matt does little to follow his father's advice. Matt's general lack of athleticism has led to him doing poorly in gym, lowering his GPA, driving him to despise sports and physical activity even more.

After graduating, Matt plans to go to college. He has applied to several colleges and has been accepted and plans on going to Arizona State University to get a bachelor's degree in biology before applying to a dental school.

Advantages: Matt is a decently intelligent person, having a good amount of natural intelligence. On top of that, he's very determined, never giving up on something he sets his mind to. Matt is also a generally cautious person, not rushing into things headfirst.

Disadvantages: He's physically weak and has a quite abrasive personality, which isn't considered a good trait by many people. Due to his abrasive personality, Matt may have made some enemies in the past.

Designated Number: Male student No. 024

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Designated Weapon: Selfie Stick

Conclusion: Even if your weapon is weak, your mind is strong. Use it well and you might just make it out alive. Do be nice, though. Don't make any enemies you don't have to. - Boris Petrikov

'The above biography is as written by Privyet. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Privyet

Kills: Wade Cartwright, Benjamin Lichter

Killed By: 

Collected Weapons: Selfie Stick (assigned weapon, discarded), Mauser C96 (from Jeremiah Fury), switchblade (from Jeremiah Fury), metal pipe (from Jeremiah Fury)

Allies: Nate Turner, Ben Fields, Jeremiah Fury, Toby Andreasson, Bart Cappotelli

Enemies: Alvaro Vacanti, Travis Lynch, Cass Prince, Wade Cartwright, Benjamin Lichter

Mid-game Evaluation: Matt woke up in front of the chapel, and entered it to find a distraught Nate Turner. They introduced themselves, and tried to joke a bit to lighten the mood. Matt's brusqueness didn't help Nate much, and Nate had a brief panic attack that Matt was only barely able to defuse. The two calmed down and decided to walk to the asylum to try and figure out the situation.

They found the second floor storage closet where Ben Fields was hiding, Matt cautioned Nate from opening the door outright. Ben overheard them and invited them in, and their alliance was quickly a solid one as Nate and Ben knew each other from Cochise. They hid themselves in the storage closet for a time, taking shifts to sleep. They heard announcements the following morning, and the room settled into an awkward silence as Nate cried and Ben tried at length to comfort his ally. A while later Ben and Matt were hashing out plans, but Nate found Henry Spencer while trying to step outside of the room for some fresh air. Henry made it clear he was friendly, but had lost his supplied and needed for new ones. Matt in turn made it clear that he had no intent to share his food, but was otherwise willing to ally with Henry. Quietly, he found Henry untrustworthy. That mistrust would later be vindicated, though Ben and Nate shared some food with Henry he fled their group the next morning before anyone else had woken up, stealing Nate's supplies in the process.

The three continued on as best as they could, exploring the asylum for supplies and allies. This led them to the basement, where they found the grisly corpse of Sanford Bricks. Matt was extremely disturbed, and when Ben noted the killer was Nancy Kyle Matt decided he was prepared to find and stop her and the other killers by any means necessary, to the point of challenging Nate when he advocated diplomacy as an option by pointing out how unlikely talking was to work at this point. Ben agreed, but before the argument could proceed any further Alvaro Vacanti came out of his hiding spot deeper within the water treatment room and threatened all of them with a gun. Nate stepped forward to try and convince Alvaro to stand down, and Ben followed cautiously after. Only Matt remained at the door, and thus he was in the best position to flee when Alvaro started firing. He didn't bother to look back or check on the others.

Matt made his way outside, unsure if Nate and Ben had been able to escape as well or if they'd been killed. He reached the bell tower, where he encountered Jeremiah Fury and Toby Andreasson, and he approached them while announcing that he was unarmed and asked the visibly-armed Jerry not to shoot. Jerry agreed, but made no long term promises, and Toby was also only loosely keeping the peace. Matt realized he was in as much danger around Jerry as anyone else, and could only hope it would be Toby and not himself who died if the peace broke. But it held, tenuously, even though conversation attempts mostly led nowhere. He was tolerated for now, so Matt followed along when Jerry decided to lead them elsewhere in pursuit of their friend Travis Lynch.

Matt followed them to the cove, where a fight broke out between Toby and Jerry as Toby's frustrations in general found a lightning rod in Jerry's behavior. The fight remained verbal and Matt tried to keep it from escalating, but his efforts were in vain and he himself threw in the towel once the fight escalated to physical brawling. Matt almost found it entertaining. Up until the part where Jerry pulled out his blade and stabbed Toby, obviously killing her. Matt began to panic then and fear for his own safety, he tried to get Jerry to stand down but Jerry only continued to remain belligerent and clearly not reasonable. Matt knew he had no chance to flee or fight, so he tried to play into Jerry's game, make himself out to be a useful ally, and after a very tense moment Jerry agreed and was mostly back to his oddball self.

Day 5 trapped them on the staff facilities side of the island, they found the corpses of Leslie Price and Jennifer Wallace and grimly considered them. Matthew continued to consider the idea of hunting down their killer, Nancy, with considerations more moral and practical. He made an attempt to lie about his skill with a gun to secure the gun from Jerry, but the possibility never panned out, as Jerry's ex-friend Travis and his ally Cass Prince had arrived to exact justice upon Jerry for killing Toby. Jerry tried and failed to defend himself then bolted, abandoning Matt. Matt didn't know what to do except beg Cass and Travis not to kill him, they made it clear they had no such intent before they left to pursue Jerry. Matt decided he had to take his chances and follow as well.

By the time he caught up to Jerry on the shoreline, Trav was already dead, having been shot to death while he attacked Jerry with his fists. Jerry dismissively gave Matt the now-empty gun, which Matt accepted due to its use as a deterrent and threat. Cass had also followed, and their mourning of Trav was interrupted by Jerry demanding their and Trav's supplies. Matt encouraged Cass to cooperate, unsympathetic to their emotional turmoil given that so many people had died already and that Jerry's murders had technically been self-defense. Cass refused to comply and punched Jerry before running off, breaking his nose. Jerry threw a short tantrum, after which Matt helped re-set his nose, and they left.

They reached the warehouse the next day, conversing as Matt had grown used to Jerry's lack of self-awareness. A noise alerted them that Bart Cappotelli was nearby, and Jerry called out aggressively. Matt backed him up with fibs of his own, trying to ward off any potential attackers. They somehow turned Alessio Rigano into a faux member of their group for intimidation purposes, and that was enough to draw both Bart and an errant Alan Banks out of hiding. Matt was concerned with Alan from what he knew of him, and warned Alan to not do something dumb in vain. Bart confirmed under verbal interrogation from the three that he had lost his allies and needed aid, Matt was somewhat sympathetic but not enough to offer anything, then Bart launched on into his allies plans to create a shelter from killers to keep the peace. Matt was quick to deride the idea as ridiculous, and Alan was as well, to such a vehement extent that he drew the attention of Matt and Jerry. Jerry told Alan to calm down and Alan only get more aggressive, Jerry socked him once and knocked him out. Matt quickly started digging through Alan's supplies, but vetoed the idea of actually killing Alan despite his internal musing otherwise. Bart seemed to be scared by what they'd just done, and Matt was fine with that since it let him keep the new supplies without having to bother with offering to share, but Jerry seemed to want Bart to come along and Matt went along with it, also encouraging Bart to be practical. After some hesitation Bart agreed, and they followed Jerry onward.

Day 7 saw Jerry and Bart puking over corpses left near the gym area, and Matt annoyed with Jerry for his usual blustering and poor foresight. This time Jerry's belligerence ticked Matt off and Matt began to argue back in kind, which only got Jerry more upset as Matt implied Jerry was not the leader of their group. Their confrontation got into each other's personal space, Matt briefly considered backing down but stood his ground, trying to call Jerry's bluff. That and Bart physically trying to intervene and pull them apart ignited Jerry's temper to the point where he was making threats and pulling his switchblade on them. However Serena Waters dramatically intervened before the fight could further escalate, she drove a car right at Jerry and ran him over, Matt only barely reacting in time to save himself. Matt was confused, horrified, and relieved at once as he considered Jerry's broken body, he then turned to try and figure out what Serena and her allies in the car, Melanie Beckett and Aiden Slattery, had been intending. Seeing that they were non-hostile and concerned, Matt shakily thanked them for saving him, and then promptly began looting Jerry's body once it was confirmed he was dead. He urged Bart to stick with the other three and not follow him, and went on his way. Matt made it as far as the slopes before he realized he regretted his decisions, that he'd abandoned his opportunity for safety and there was no guarantee he'd find it again.

He would then learn that Ben had died on Day 7, and the news shocked him into realizing the gravity of his situation, that he had to overcome his own cowardice and find a way home. On Day 8 he hid in a bush nearby the warehouse, and when Wade Cartwright appeared he attacked him with the pipe. He missed his first try for a quick finishing blow and hit Wade's shoulder instead of head, Wade fell to the ground and Matt struck him again in the chest. Matt's next strike missed and Wade was able to get to his feet and start punching back, shocked and scared for his own life Matt struck back again and again, finally cracking Wade's skull open. Matt was left to coldly consider what he'd done, the practicalities, whether he'd really get away with it, what he needed to do next. He had no thoughts for Wade in particular before he left, he'd never known the man.

Later that afternoon he wandered without purpose, already well decided that he didn't particularly care about what he'd just done and was ready to move on, to the end and to an escape from the island. He was found at the slopes by Benjamin Lichter, who Matt did not know had been Wade's ally when Matt had set about killing him. Ben's anger was only met by Matt's discomfort and evasiveness, he tried to deflect when Ben asked about the bloodied pipe, and only regretted that the kill had produced this awkward and possibly dangerous situation after the fact and that he had to justify himself and lie when he felt there was morally no wrong he'd committed. Ben eventually attacked after a bit of back and forth and Matt yelled for respite, for a chance to lie to save himself from the fight, but Ben instead tackled onto him, threatening to choke Matt. Matt shook him off and sent Ben tumbling down the slope but he recovered and charged the whole way back up the slope to re-engage. Matt ended it with a single swing of his pipe that sent Ben's corpse flying away back down the slope once more, Matt had few thoughts to spare save self-interested concern about having made himself into a target.

Matt wandered back to the shoreline where Jerry had killed Travis, and found none other than Nate standing there. Matt greeted him, but he was unresponsive, and Matt found enough altruism to offer Nate some food, now that he himself had a surplus.

Post-Game Evaluation: 

Memorable Quotes: "Uh.. sorry, I kinda want to keep all my food for myself. Gotta look out for number one, right?" - When Henry asked for food.

"I guess you can try talking to her if you want, man. I don't think it's gonna work. I really, really don't." -- Matt to Nate, concerning Nancy.

"I think it'd be justified if we killed him." -- To himself, concerning Alan's unconscious ass.

"Let's say I do try and kill you! Not saying I won't - I mean, will - when would I do it and with what? EHH. Survey says I'd let someone else do it, Jerry. Get real!" -- Matt pointing out the holes in Jerry's claims that they need him to get kills and be protected. The 'EHH' is the mimed sound of a buzzer.

 "I don't wanna be a loser, Nate. I've been a loser my entire life. That's about it.. I mean, I don't wanna win because I want to get a job or get married or go to college. (...) I just want to win because that's good enough. Just winning, you know? Making someone else lose. Living when everyone else died, even if it's for a second. That's good enough." - Revealing his real motivation for survival.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Matt, in chronological order.

V6 Pregame:
 * Imparare
 * The First Mistake

V6:
 * Dear God
 * Forget About What I Said
 * Coming Out Of The Closet
 * Ain't nobody got time for this
 * It's a Snap
 * What if I told you...
 * Wombo Combo
 * Let the Darkness Flow Through You
 * You thought it was Kimiko but it was me, Jerry!
 * Man, Islands Suck
 * Prey Empathy
 * Chokepoint
 * This is Where I'll Stand When the Flood Comes
 * Open Your Eyes and Look North

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Matt Moradi. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''